Ministry of Education and Higher Education officials at the press conference.

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QNA/Doha

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education on Sunday announced that it has agreed to increase the tuition fees for 28 private schools and kindergartens for the 2019/2020 academic year, out of 126 applications.

The rate of increase ranges from 3% to 10%, according to a ministry official. There are 287 private schools and kindergartens operating in the country.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, Hamad al-Ghali, director of the Private Schools Licensing Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, explained the stages the schools had to go through in order to get approval for an increase in tuition fees.
He noted that the rate of increase in fees, as approved for 28 private schools and kindergartens, ranged between 3% and 10%. The reasons for a hike in fees include a school's need for financial support, improving the academic and educational impact, the presence of a financial deficit despite the school's commitment to operational capacity, a change in the school building, a move to another school building and a change in rental value.
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At the same time, al-Ghali discussed the reasons why other schools failed to get approval for the tuition fees they had applied for. The reasons include the failure to attach three financial statements required to examine the financial performance of the school, that the decline in, or lack of, profits is the result of poor management rather than low fees, and providing inaccurate or incomplete data, among other factors.
The official also shed light on the new academic year and said registration in schools will take place from March 3 until October 17. The deadline for registering students coming from abroad is the end of January 2020, he added.
Students eligible for kindergarten must be born before September 30, 2016. As for primary education, students must be born before September 30, 2014.
Meanwhile, information available on the ministry's website shows that 15 of the 28 schools and kindergartens have been permitted to increase their fees by 3%, five can do so by 5%, three can do so 7%, and one each can do so by 8%, 6% and 4%, respectively. Two schools and kindergartens have been allowed to raise their fees by 10%.